Often when Black or other racially marginalized group express a desire for wellness or healing it is read in white disability studies as internalized ableist expressions of desire for able-bodied/mindedness. This is not always the case. NBWHP's definitions of health and wellness do not exclude disabled people or rely of a cure. Individual definitions of wellness allow for investment in a hoslistic, cultural and political approach to health and wellness that does not exclude disability and is based on creating positive impacts for generations of Black people.

How Self-definition of Wellness Relates to Black Disability Politics

Wellness in the NBWHP by being self-defined centers individuals' own needs, desires, capabilities, and norms. This centers wellness and therefore  moves health from being solely defined as a medically determined, and seemingly objective state of being to being viewed as an individual experience.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The NBWHP has never offered an explicit definition of wellness and well-being. However the pamphlet Black Women Helping Ourselves notes that self-help groups allow Black women to define wellness for themselves and have those definitions shaped by the larger social forces in their lives

How NBWHP Defines Wellness and Well-being

Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478027003

Black Disability Politics

Self-Definition of Wellness and Well-being

The NBWHP's definition of health shows that the NBWHP believes that physical symptoms cannot be adequately treated unless mental, emotional and spiritual health is also addressed. While the NBWHP had self-help groups and programming focused on certain common physical health concerns for Black women - e.g. diabetes, hypertension, HIV/AIDS - it also addressed a wide variety of health and wellness topics.

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